


giving

by nebulera



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-04
Updated: 2020-10-04
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:21:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26808817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nebulera/pseuds/nebulera
Summary: Plo seeks out a troubled soul.
Relationships: Plo Koon/Darth Maul
Comments: 5
Kudos: 36





	giving

Maul is hard to track down, Plo concludes, stepping through bush after bush before finally finding the secluded Zabrak in a small clearing, red and black standing still and ominously among withering greens and a pink sky. The air is cold; perhaps an autumn was bound for descent upon the creatures of this planet. 

“Something caught your eye?” Plo asks, slowing down.

“No,” Maul says, looking over his shoulder briefly. “I like to be alone.”

“I know,” Plo says, stepping into place beside him. His hand finds Maul’s shoulder.

The ex-Sith no longer shies away from physical contact, though it still surprises him in a way that Plo can see that no one else may notice.

“How are the men?” Maul asks.

“Track was injured, though he’s been attended to. I imagine with the medication he’s been given he’ll sleep like a youngling.”

“The commander?”

“Only told me to come find you.”

Maul looks away from him. Plo intends to ask him what’s wrong, why he’s out here, when Maul spares him a glance. “You shouldn’t worry about me, Jedi.”

What a thing to say, Plo thinks. 

Perhaps it was the years of familiarity and comfort. When the strange illusion of the Order’s prisoner becoming his friend became less strange and more of a reality. When the highlights of his day were seeing Maul, coaxing him out of the uncomfortable way he sat in his skin, likewise opening Plo up to him as well. When his taking care of Maul has been taking care of him. There has yet to be any guilt from the contradictory nature of his vows and his Maul. He imagines Maul cannot know the multitude of his feelings; how could he?

“Forgive me,” is all he can say. “It’s in my nature.”

His hand is still on Maul’s shoulder. He lets it slip down and slowly glide across the press of muscles. He’s tense.

“What troubles you?”

Maul blinks at the question. “It wouldn’t be wise to say.”

He moves away from Plo’s hand, who extracts it carefully, leaving a dull ache beneath his claws. 

“You’re allowed your secrets,” Plo says. It’s truly one of the only things he is allowed, his own thoughts—and even that is debatable within the confines of the Temple. Though, there’s nothing more he loves to hear than Maul’s thoughts unfiltered and unwavering—something he’s given Plo before though tonight his thoughts appear mangled and uneasy for Plo to understand. “But you’re no burden to me.”

Maul says nothing.

Seconds pass in silence. Trepidation in his shoulders, Plo says, “I have something to give you, if you’ll permit me.”

Maul nods, though he seems rather distracted—so much so that upon seeing Plo reach for his saber, detach it and hold it out to him, he stares at it rather confused.

“I’ve made a new one, and I suppose you’d like to defend yourself properly.”

“You—“ Maul whispers, putting his hand over Plo’s saber, his fingers brushing his corse palm, though he doesn’t take it. Muted emotions pass over his face, hard to decipher for most. “You made a new saber because you were bored?”

“I made a new saber because I wanted you to have mine.” 

A confession could never be as bold as giving your life to someone. Maul is not a sociable person. To render him speechless is redundant, but once the words dawn on him, Maul’s fingers hesitate even longer still against Plo’s palm. As Plo waits, his hand finds its way back to Maul, his palm at his middle. Plo’s heartbeat skyrockets. 

But it was an offer; he wouldn’t force Maul to accept, nor did he expect it. Perhaps Maul would close Plo’s fingers back around his saber in a silent rejection and Plo would nod and walk away, resolute with a valley in his chest but okay with love in his heart. 

Maul grips the saber and takes it from him. He stares at it for a long time. “I don’t know what to do with this,” he says. There’s a shine in his eyes.

“I don’t either,” Plo says honestly. He reaches again to rest his hand on Maul’s shoulder. “But what I do know is that I’ve cared for you for a very long time.”

Maul steps away from him, his eyes firm on the lightsaber before he looks up at Plo for the first time. “You’re breaking a lot of rules for this,” Maul says.

“It’s beyond my control,” Plo says. 

“I don’t think so.”

“Maul,” Plo says, some insane nerve having him reach up to thumb at Maul’s chin. “If this isn’t something you want, I will walk away from you now. I’ll never speak of this. But you wonder why I worry. I worry for you all the time. I think of you all the time.” His hand reaches for his own chest, over his heart.

Maul turns away from Plo, his face contorted in a way Plo has yet to see so visibly. He embraces his saber with two hands, thumbing at the switch. In the midst of their silence, the saber ignites. Maul’s red skin becomes engrossed in a light blue.

It couldn’t look more natural in his hands, Plo thinks.

Maul extinguishes the saber. When he turns back towards Plo, he reaches for his hand and grips it tenderly with his own.

Plo could have fainted. “I make a lousy Jedi, don’t I?” Plo says once his breath comes back to him. They stand close, their foreheads almost meeting.

“And I a Sith,” Maul says, his face breaking out into a smile.

**Author's Note:**

> holy rarepair, batman
> 
> yay or nay


End file.
